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The Group of Eight ministers declared using sexual violence and rape as weapons of war to be "one of the greatest and most persistent injustices in the world," says U.K. Foreign Minister William Hague. The G8 is allotting $35.5 million in funding to combat rape.

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Colombia is making headway in prosecuting sexual violence and rape in war zones, but advocates say more work is needed. U.K. Foreign Minister William Hague is working to raising global awareness of such incidents in conflict zones.

The International Criminal Court is seeking to quickly move DR Congo warlord Bosco Ntaganda to its court in The Hague. Ntaganda, who is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the ICC, unexpectedly turned himself in to the U.S. embassy in Rwanda on Monday.

The fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old college student in India is reverberating in South Africa, where activists say an estimated 2.3 million people are sexually assaulted each year, and data suggest nearly 1 in 3 men has committed rape. About 16% of sexual assaults in South Africa involve gang rape.

The use of rape as a weapon of war needs to be broadly recognized as a massive assault on the rights of women and girls, and perpetrators convicted, the United Nations officials with the Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative say. The initiative seeks to raise the profile of sexual violence in conflict among world leaders, while working to end the practice and protect survivors.

The trial of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, which opened Monday in the International Criminal Court in the Hague, was broadcast live in the war-torn northeast Congo, where Lubanga is accused of abducting children to serve as soldiers and training them to kill and rape. As the world's first permanent war-crimes court, the ICC is expected to serve as a deterrent to such crimes while giving voice to victims, such as the dozens expected to testify in Lubanga's trial.